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Minecraft's roster of in-game mobs continues to grow, but every entity from the past and present has fallen into certain classifications. Typically, they are categorized based on their behavior relative to the player and other mobs, but some (such as those that are unused or were discarded) have different classifications based on the status of their development.
The differences between a passive, neutral, hostile, or joke mob in Minecraft may not be as substantial as players might think. However, it doesn't hurt to take a look at the different classes/categories that mobs are assigned to for an attempt at understanding their behavior or their relationship as a whole.
Explaining each Minecraft mob classification
1) Passive mobs
Passive Minecraft mobs are largely uninterested in conflict. They tend to leave other players alone and will usually try to flee when attacked, though some occasionally attack others based on their behavioral programming. Otherwise, they will carry about their business until acted upon by players or when they're in the presence of other mobs.
The full list of passive mobs can be found below:
- Allays
- Armadillos
- Axolotls
- Bats
- Camels
- Cats
- Chickens
- Cod
- Cows
- Donkeys
- Frogs
- Glow Squids
- Horses
- Mooshrooms
- Mules
- Ocelots
- Parrots
- Pigs
- Pufferfish (protect themselves when threatened)
- Rabbits
- Salmon
- Sheep
- Skeleton Horses
- Sniffers
- Snow Golems
- Squids
- Striders
- Tadpoles
- Tropical Fish
- Turtles
- Turtles
- Villagers
- The Wandering Trader
2) Hostile mobs
Minecraft's hostile mobs are classified as such because they're willing to go out of their way to attack players (and usually other mobs as well). Their spawning conditions and behaviors are diverse, but they all exist in an aggressive manner. Moreover, certain hostile mobs like baby zombies can occasionally ride other mobs like chickens, pigs, and spiders, though this is somewhat rare.
Regardless, the full list of hostile mobs in the game can be found below:
- Blazes
- Bogged
- Breezes
- Creepers
- Elder Guardians
- Endermites
- Evokers
- Ghasts
- Guardians
- Hoglins
- Husks
- Magma Cubes
- Phantoms
- Piglin Brutes
- Pillagers
- Ravagers
- Shulkers
- Silverfish
- Skeletons
- Slimes
- Strays
- Vexes
- Vindicators
- The Warden
- Witches
- Wither Skeletons
- Zoglins
- Zombies
- Zombie Villagers
3) Neutral mobs
Neutral mobs in Minecraft can shift between passivity and hostility relative to players based on how the latter interact with them. Typically, these are passive until acted upon, wherein they can become hostile and attack. Meanwhile, some neutral mobs are aggressive by default but players can pacify them and make them passive.
Below, fans can find the full list of mobs that are considered neutral in-game:
- Bees
- Cave Spiders
- Dolphins
- Drowned
- Endermen
- Foxes
- Goats
- Iron Golems
- Llamas
- Pandas
- Piglins
- Polar Bears
- Spiders
- Trader Llamas
- Wolves
- Zombified Piglins
4) Boss mobs
Hostile entities that are much tougher than their counterparts, Minecraft's boss mobs don't spawn randomly like most others and have encounters that are considered intentional by Mojang's game design. They are also signified by the fact that they have a health bar that appears in the player's UI, something that the latter would otherwise have to apply to other creatures with commands.
At the moment, only two boss mobs exist in-game: the Ender Dragon and the Wither. The former is a required boss fight to complete the Survival Mode story and reach the end credits, while the Wither is an optional boss fight that drops precious nether stars upon its defeat.
5) Unused mobs
Unused mobs are those that were implemented in Minecraft at some point in time, but have since been removed from being able to spawn naturally. They still exist within the game's code and can often be summoned through the use of the /summon command. However, many don't have a fully developed AI, or they are used for other purposes (such as certain Education Edition mobs).
All in all, for one reason or another, these Minecraft mobs are either unfinished or can't be used to their full ability outside of certain circumstances. The full list of unused mobs in Minecraft can be found below:
- Giants
- Zombie Horses
- The Killer Bunny
- The Agent (requires an Education Edition or Bedrock Edition world connected to a WebSocket server for full use)
- NPC (Exclusive to Education Edition and Bedrock worlds with Education Edition features enabled)
- Illusioners
- Elder Guardian Ghosts
- Old Villagers (villagers used before the Village & Pillage update)
- Old Zombie Villagers (also used before the Village & Pillage update)
6) Removed mobs
As the name implies, these are Minecraft mobs that were once implemented in the game (usually in very early iterations of Java Edition), but were later removed and no longer exist in any form in the current version. Attempting to summon them with commands no longer works, though some modders and data pack creators have found ways to reintroduce them.
Whatever the case, the full list of removed mobs can be found below:
- Mobs
- Beast Boy
- Black Steve
- Rana
- Steve
- Monsters
7) Joke mobs
The Java Edition has a long history of April Fool's Day snapshots where exclusive features and mobs would be introduced. This results in joke mobs, or those created by Mojang to be little more than a gag for fans to laugh over. However, they can't be accessed or found outside of their April Fool's Day snapshots.
Here, players can find a list of joke mobs found across the game's history:
- Diamond Chickens
- Pig/Cow "Horses"
- Pig/Cow "Ponies"
- Love Golems
- Mars
- Moon Cows
- Nerd Creepers
- Pink Withers
- Ray Tracing
- Redstone Bugs
- Smiling Creepers
8) Unimplemented mobs
Unimplemented mobs are classified as such because they were once confirmed to appear in Minecraft, but for one reason or another, never made it in. Some creatures did eventually appear in other titles like the Dungeons spin-off, but otherwise, they never appeared in Mojang's primary sandbox game. Some unimplemented mobs are also those that lost the yearly Mob Vote event.
Here is the full list of mobs that were once considered by Mojang, but ultimately went unimplemented:
- Pigman Bodyguard
- Red Dragon
- Alpaca
- Barnacle
- The Great Hunger
- Wildfires
- Meerkats
- Ostriches
- Termites
- Vultures
- Mooblooms
- Iceologer
- Glare
- Copper Golem
- Firefly
- Rascal
- Tuff Golem
- Crab
- Penguin
By and large, most unimplemented mobs have little to no chance of appearing in vanilla Minecraft. They may pop up in current or future spin-offs, but for the most part, Mojang has shelved their inclusion to focus on current and upcoming creatures.
